With development of wireless network technologies, radio-frequency coverage of a single device cannot meet requirements for wide coverage and high throughput performance. Therefore, in the prior art, multiple devices cooperatively work to implement hybrid networking and form a master-slave network, so as to meet the foregoing requirements.
The master-slave network includes a master device (MD), at least one slave device (SD), and at least one user device (UD). The master device is configured to manage all slave devices in the master-slave network, and the master device may further radiate to the outside, so as to provide a service to user devices. The slave device is configured to cooperate with the master device to implement a service function, and provide a data forwarding channel to a lower-level slave device. Moreover, the slave device may further radiate to the outside and cooperate with the master device to provide a service to user devices.
In an existing communications protocol, a power saving mechanism between a single device (for example, a master device or a slave device) and a user device is defined in a master-slave network. However, the prior art defines only the power saving mechanism between a single device (a master device or a slave device) and a user device, but lacks a power saving mechanism between the master device and the slave device.